Race against time to save Kangaroo Island’s Ligurian bees and honeyeaters

Workers are racing to save what’s left of Kangaroo Island’s unique bee population while another species that relies on them suffers another cruel twist of fate.

A honeyeater is cared for in the wake of the fires. Picture: Emma Brasier

• New fire threat engulfs Kangaroo Island
• Are you getting the most from your Advertiser subscription?

Beekeepers are racing against time to save the last remaining hives of a unique bee responsible for producing Kangaroo Island’s internationally famous honey.

Countless Ligurian bees – originally introduced from Italy in the 1880s – have perished in the fires.

Hundreds of hives have been destroyed at locations on the western and northern sides of the island, where the bees were first released in the Flinders Chase National Park.

The destruction – and honey dripping from the damaged hives – has attracted the honeyeater, a small native bird with white, black and yellow plumage.

Kangaroo Island Beehive head apiarist Mark Harte, right, with fellow apiarist Chris George wash and hydrate a juvenile honey eater bird that is covered in honey. Picture: Emma Brasier

Kangaroo Island’s biggest honey producer, Island Beehive, has found hundreds of the birds drowning in the melting honey. Head apiarist Mark Harte said he had taken numerous birds to the company’s factory at Kingscote in a bid to rescue them.

“We have washed them and tried to save them but it has been really hard,” he said. Mr Harte said hives that had survived last weekend’s inferno were being relocated towards the eastern end of the island. “We are trying to rescue everything we can to preserve what stocks (of Ligurian bees) we have got left so we can try to rebuild,” he said.

In pictures: Kangaroo Island bushfire disaster

VIEW GALLERY

The fires had wiped out large areas of mallee, stringy bark and sugar bush gums, which were the principal food source for the Ligurian bees. Mr Harte estimated at least 700 of his firm’s 1300 hives had been destroyed.

“They have just been absolutely decimated,” he said. “We have been looking after these bees for many years and it is just heartbreaking.”

Island Beehive owner Peter Davis said the business would look at using its remaining bees’ genetic material to rebuild other populations.

“We might be able to help provide queens for other beekeepers across Australia, who have been affected,” he said.

“One of the things we’ve lost is the resource that the bees rely on to collect pollen and honey from.

“That resource – the native trees – will not flower again for seven years.”

The business was just one of those suffering from a massive hit to the tourist season, since the blazes began.

“We’ve gone from 250 people a day here last week to 30 people yesterday, and at other businesses it’s exactly the same,” Mr Davis said.